Beautiful Thing

Jamie and Ste (short for Steve) are teenage neighbors in a
working-class housing project in London. Jamie is bookish and
shy while Ste is more athletic. Neither one has an ideal home life:
Jamie’s mother Sandra is bitter over her financial situation and
her romantic life, but she’s willing to settle for a bloke named Tony
and cover up her disappointment with scathing humor; Ste’s
father and brother abuse him in the form of escalating domestic
squabbles and actual beatings. After one such fight, Ste asks
Sandra if he can stay at her house and she lets him and Jamie
bunk together.
As their friendship grows, Jamie begins to realize he has stronger
feelings for Ste, and one night, after Ste suffers a particularly bad
beating, the two boys decide to experiment together. Both
realizing they’re gay, Ste and Jamie begin a tentative relationship.
Soon, Sandra hears the rumor that her son’s gay, and knowing
that he’s been having trouble in school, she confronts him and he
admits the truth. Ste and Jamie’s friend, Leah, is also in on the
secret and she’s supportive of them, probably because of her
own outsider status as a Mama Cass worshipper. The play ends
with the two boys feeling less alone in the world than before; they
have each other, and even the bickering Sandra and Leah call a
truce and accompany the boys in a slow dance for all their
neighbors to see.